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Monday, December 31, 2012

BANGING THE GIANCARLO DRUM

Good nugget from MLB.com's Joe Frisaro (HERE) who writes that there is most likely an unwillingness from Giancarlo Stanton to sign a long term deal with the Marlins... considering to sent "all the good players", may words, to the Toronto Blue Jays, leaving Stanton alone.

Frisaro writes: "...Yes, the Marlins would move Stanton, but only for a tremendous haul, which means he would essentially clean out the top prospects of any organization. It would basically take four or perhaps five players to complete a deal for Stanton.

Stanton will not be arbitration eligible until 2014, and he isn't eligible for free agency until after the 2016 season. So the Marlins are in no rush to trade Stanton. Yet, it remains highly unlikely he will agree to a long-term contract.

It is appearing more inevitable that sometime before he reaches free agency that Stanton will be moved, because the Marlins are reloading their roster, and will look to add as many quality pieces in the next few years..."

All of this is true and interesting and when I suggested the Yankees jump on this, I meant it. You don't have a stud like Stanton come around too many times in a career. He's a special player. Yes, we also have special players in our farm system, but the good news about special minor league players is, there are always minor leaguers, there is always new talent and there is always turnover.

Do I sound like the devil? I don't mean to. Yes, it want our Yankees farm hands to blossom in pinstripes and there are certain guys like that I would NEVER move, but there was something that happened to me the day Jesus Montero was traded to the Seattle Mariners for Michael Pineda... I was stung pretty bad. Then, I was angry and now... now I think like a GM. You see a guy like Stanton, you make the deal happen. Brian Cashman is the best General Manager in the business and if he can't do it, I'm not sure anyone can.

Frisaro said one more thing which I found fascinating... "Giancarlo Stanton is a force in the middle of the Miami Marlins' lineup. But like any player in the organization, the 23-year-old slugger is not considered untouchable." Hmm, where have you heard that before? How about when I wrote SNAGGING GIANCARLO STANTON WOULD PROVE CASHMAN GENIUS on November 15th...

" Giancarlo Stanton, a guy the Marlins have called
untouchable...but no one is untouchable... no one."

Oh... now that phrase has gone mainstream? Nice. Look, the Yanks have to jump on this. There are certain pieces in baseball that teams should go after.

I said it about Ichiro back in June (HERE)... it was a wish of mine, a pipe dream, a player that I knew could contribute to the Yankees already stellar lineup in the short term. And guess what.... he did.

Stanton's another guy, a guy who can contribute now and if the timing is right, the money can be worked out, the prospects can be re-arranged... maybe, just maybe we see the guy in pinstripes. I've said it so many times and I'll say it again... stranger things have happened.

Stay tuned...

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